The Great Rent Refund Fight
A landmark Seattle court case establishes a precedent for tenants demanding rent back after their buildings are destroyed.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The case of Staines & Schroder against J. O. Kenyon consumed all day yesterday before a jury in Justice Rivers' court. This is the case in which the former tenants of Mr. Kenyon combined and brought suit against him to recover a portion of the rent paid for the month of June. On the 1st of June, these tenants paid Mr. Kenyon a month’s rent in advance, amounting to $136. The fire consumed the premises on June 6, and afterwards his tenants asked him to refund a portion of the rent paid, inasmuch as they had not received value for their money. Mr. Kenyon refused, claiming the law allowed him to keep it. The jury were far above the average—one or two being landlords themselves—and they returned a verdict against Mr. Kenyon for the full amount. This was a test case on a question involved, for which, curiously enough, there is not an authority in the history of jurisprudence directly in print. Probably $20,000 was paid under similar circumstances at the beginning of June, and the decision in favor of the tenants will doubtless cause other suits to spring up against such landlords as have refused to refund.
“Probably $20,000 was paid under similar circumstances at the beginning of June, and the decision in favor of the tenants will doubtless cause other suits of a similar nature to spring up.”
This 1889 legal battle over rent following the Great Seattle Fire mirrors modern disputes about tenant rights and 'frustration of purpose' in rental agreements. Much like today's housing market, the legal standing of tenants versus property owners remains a fiercely contested civic argument in Seattle.
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